Skip to content
Politics
Link copied to clipboard

Live Coverage: Fla. appears to reject abortion restrictions

Florida voters defeated a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have restricted abortion rights, the . The amendment directed that public funds not be used for health-benefits coverage that included coverage of abortion, except under certain circumstances. It also would have overruled court decisions that determined a right to privacy under the state constitution that is broader in scope than that under the U.S. Constitution.

Florida voters defeated a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have restricted abortion rights, the . The amendment directed that public funds not be used for health-benefits coverage that included coverage of abortion, except under certain circumstances. It also would have overruled court decisions that determined a right to privacy under the state constitution that is broader in scope than that under the U.S. Constitution.

Montana was also voting on an abortion measure, requiring parental notification for minors except when there is a medical emergency or has been waived by the courts.

- Don Sapatkin

11 p.m.

Mass. voters appear to back medical marijuana

Voters in Massachusetts appeared to decisively approve a medical marijuana ballot measure. Six states had some form of marijuana measure on the ballot Tuesday: Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Montana voters were deciding on measures that would allow marijuana use for medical purposes. Colorado, Oregon, and Washington state had broader measures on the ballot.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia currently have laws on the books legalizing marijuana use for certain people.

- Don Sapatkin

9:10 p.m.

Libertarian nominee wins support in Conshohocken

Jason Pappanastasiou says he votes for the oddballs.

Pappanastasiou, 37, a shop foreman at a print shop, had just cast his ballot at Conshohocken's Precinct 6 for Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson. He's dissatisfied, he says, with both major political parties.

"I don't like either of the big ticket guys," he said. He'd showed up late to the polls - around 6:30 - after a full day at work. He's voted in every election since he was 18 and is a registered Democrat, but began voting for third-party candidates in 2008. Then, he cast his ballot for Ralph Nader.

"Neither [Obama nor Romney] is going to change anything for me - I'm middle class," he said.

With just over an hour left before polls closed, Conshohocken mayor Bob Frost was still guiding voters to the polls as Precinct 6's official machine operator. He's been doing it for more than 25 years with his wife, Joanne, the precinct's judge of elections.

Joanne Frost said turnout had been robust all day Tuesday, with 561 of the precinct's 850 voters showing up by about 6:30. That's higher turnout than the 2008 election, she said. The polling place had flyers on hand informing voters about the state's voter ID law - "just to get used to it," she said - but poll workers weren't requiring voters to show an ID.

"We had some people that said, 'I have it, but you aren't seeing it,' and that's fine," she said.

Bob Frost said he'd spent the day giving tutorials on the precinct's voting machines, which he said confused some voters.

"I just show them how to hit the buttons," he said, laughing. He said he'd helped one woman - about 60 years old - who asked for help because it was her first time voting.

"It's a nice neighborhood here - everybody knows everybody," Frost said. "Democrats, Republicans - that's today. Tomorrow, everybody is friends again."

A few blocks away at the Fellowship House polling center, poll workers say they were seeing record turnout as well. They'd had a few glitches throughout the day. Judge of elections Diane Sassman said six to seven voters between two precincts at the center didn't show up on voter rolls because they'd changed their addresses with PennDot and their new information apparently wasn't processed. Those voters were given provisional ballots and change of address forms to make sure they could vote at the right precinct in future elections.

An hour before polls closed, Sassman said she was tired but rallying.

"This is better than voter apathy," she said, smiling.

Nearby, City Councilman Paul McConnell said he was exhausted as well - he'd spent all day on his feet - but handed out "I voted!" stickers with a smile to nearly everyone who passed by. McConnell said he bought the stickers himself.

"People are proud to wear it," he said. "And some just want one to show their boss."

Outside the polling place, Kasey Deja, 32, said she'd just voted for a straight Republican ticket but felt split between the two candidates. Romney, she says, is in line with her positions on taxes, health care, and the economy. But Obama is a "stand-up guy" who has grown on her over the last four years.

"I like his personality," said Deja, a senior product manager at Aberdeen Asset Management. "Over the past four years, I've grown to like him. I don't know if four years is enough time for anyone to make change."

- Aubrey Whelan

'Evil genius' sparked party-line rumor

8:50 p.m.

No one knows who started the rumor.

In an interview, Montgomery County Democratic Party chairman Marcel Groen credited "an evil genius."

But the result of the rumor was a disinformation campaign making the rounds Tuesday, reportedly via Facebook posts and robocalls, that a straight-party-line vote for the entire Democratic ticket in Pennsylvania would somehow nullify the vote at the top of the ticket for President Obama.

Groen said his party's headquarters had received numerous calls throughout the day from voters concerned about that issue, which really is a nonissue because there is no truth to it.

Whoever conceived of the "dirty trick," said Groen, knew that Obama voters are so committed that they would conceivably err on the side of caution by blanking the candidates lower down on the ticket in order to preserve their vote for the president.

It was a strategy designed to damage such statewide candidates as U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, and Pennsylvania attorney general hopeful Kathleen Kane, not Obama, said Groen.

- Michael Matza

Record turnout seen at Cheltenham polling place

With minutes to go before the polls closed, voters were sparse at Glenside Elementary School in Cheltenham Township Tuesday, but Deb Winneberger, a longtime election judge, said that turnout looked like it would set a record high. In all, 1,149 ballots had been cast shortly before 8 p.m.

"It's higher than I have ever seen it," she said, adding that turnout would best the 75 percent the precinct had recorded four years ago.

The polling place on the first floor of the K-4 school was packed for several hours in the morning, Winneberger said, and that voting had been steady all day.

- Martha Woodall

8:35 p.m.

Montco voter-ID signs an 'oversight'

Several polling places in Montgomery County posted signs Tuesday morning telling voters they were required to show a photo ID at the polls.

Montgomery County Commissioner Leslie Richards said the signs - 11-by-17 sheets that listed acceptable forms of voter ID, parameters under which voters could use provisional ballots, and information on where to direct complaints - were printed by the state and included in a packet distributed to polling places.

Richards said that the signs were outdated and that each polling place had been instructed to take them down.

Thomas J. Messmer, the judge of election in Whitpain's Precinct 3, said he'd received only one complaint about the sign from a voter but said he posted it because he was following instructions from the county board of elections. The sign stayed up until late Tuesday, but Messmer took it down at around 5 p.m. after checking his e-mail and finding a mass e-mail from the board of elections telling precincts to take the signs down. That e-mail had been sent around 2 p.m.

Assistant County Solicitor David Robinson said the sign had simply fallen through the cracks amid various election signage sent from the state, calling their posting an "oversight." The state had informed counties to remove certain items from their polling packets after a court ruling on the voter-ID law, but overlooked the sign posted Tuesday, he said. Robinson said the county had received several calls about the signs and notified judges of elections to take them down via e-mail, telling judges who called in about the signs to take them down as well.

"The truth of the matter is, everybody missed it," he said.

- Aubrey Whelan and Kristen Holmes

Mostly quiet for Phila.'s Election Court

For most of the day, Philadelphia's Election Court was quiet - unusually so for a presidential election, said election officials and representatives of the two political parties.

There were only a half-dozen requests for emergency absentee ballots and a handful of newly registered voters who said they were unable to obtain provisional ballots from their polling places. Those questions were dealt with quickly by the two election judges - Common Pleas Court Judge Milton Younge during the morning, and President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe during the afternoon and evening.

Three issues, however, gave the judges and lawyers for the Democratic and Republican state committees and the city commissioners enough to keep them occupied.

The most problematic proved to be a report that citywide there was a shortage of provisional ballots that threatened to disenfranchise thousands of voters whose names did not appear on the official voter rolls in their polling place.

Shortly after 3 p.m., Elizabeth Langston, who said she was a lawyer for the group Organizing for America, a Democratic community organizing effort, came to the city's Election Court and told Dembe that 10 lawyers working with her around the city had found evidence of 120 voting divisions that had run out of provisional ballots or the envelopes used to seal the completed ballots.

Langston urged Dembe to order the city commissioners to immediately print and distribute 100 provisional ballots for each of the city's 1,600 voting districts.

Langston's request for vigorously opposed by lawyers for the Republican state committee.

GOP lawyer Jonathan S. Goldstein said Langston's information was too vague to authorize the printing and distribution of more than 160,000 additional provisional ballots with just five hours left before the polls closed.

Dembe ordered Goldstein and Democratic state committee lawyer Adam Bonin and officials of the City Commissioners' Office to begin calling the 120 divisions cited by Langston to confirm the purported shortages.

But about 5:30 p.m., Deputy City Commissioner Fred Voigt told Dembe that he had called a third of the 120 divisions - the others had not answered their phones - and only one division had reported that it was running low on provisional ballots. That division had already contacted city election officials for a resupply, Voigt said.

"I think that's pretty representative of what I would call the echo chamber," Voigt said, referring to how rapidly rumors spread in a volatile situation.

Dembe, with the concurrence of Democratic and Republican lawyers, agreed and denied the request. Dembe said she would deal with any shortages of provisional ballots on a case-by-case basis.

The court was also asked to resolve a problem with a mural of President Obama, including the logo of his presidential campaign, on the wall of a high school that was the site of a polling place.

Judge Younge had granted a motion by Goldstein for an order to immediately cover the mural until after the polls closed. But by mid afternoon, several sheets of poster board had covered Obama's face, the logo and his name.

Goldstein went before Dembe complaining that the mural was still not fully covered as Younge ordered.

Voigt interrupted him and held up a cellphone showing a picture of the partly covered mural and both were then interrupted by Dembe in an attempt to cool the escalating tempers.

"I find it ludicrous to think that somebody's vote is going to be changed by a mural on the wall," Dembe told Goldstein. "So curb your enthusiasm, if you will."

That battle proved to be a loser for Republicans; by about 6:30 p.m., the mural remained only partly obscured.

The day began with a dispute involving a group of Republican polling place inspectors, part of a group of 300 certified by Dembe last week to monitor polling places for the GOP.

Traditionally, in overwhelmingly Democratic Philadelphia, where there have not always been enough Republicans to staff the inspector's posts, Democrats have appointed one of their own to fill the role of minority inspector.

But on Tuesday the sudden appearance of bona fide Republican inspectors apparently surprised Democratic poll workers, who had already filled the minority posts with their own. Some Democratic poll officials refused to admit the GOP inspectors.

Judge Younge ultimately had to issue orders delivered to 35 to 45 precincts telling the Democratic polling officials that they had to let the Republicans in.

- Joseph A. Slobodzian

8:15 p.m.

A vote and a hot meal in Upper Bucks

In tiny Riegelsville Borough in the northern corner of Upper Bucks County, which was without electricity until Monday evening, voters also got a hot meal at their relocated polling place.

"They should serve food every year," Democratic Party worker Peter Ryan said outside the borough's firehouse, which replaced the Borough Hall site at the last minute.

Many of the borough's 900 residents have been going to the firehouse on Delaware Road for meals for a week, Republican committeewoman Therese Johnson said, "so it's like we're just back here again."

Bucks County was the hardest-hit county in the state in terms of power outages, with more than 180,000 customers losing power when Sandy hit last week. Yet, Riegelsville's polling place was the only one of the county's 215 sites that was relocated, with the decision announced Monday afternoon.

"We have the same turnout as the last presidential election," Ryan said. "There was no confusion" about the change in voting sites.

As of 6:45 p.m., 405 of the district's 638 registered voters had cast their ballots, Democratic committeewoman Kathie Weiss said.

"About 100 of which are dead," Mayor Greg Stokes added, pointing to the neighboring cemetery.

Weiss put that number at "five or six."

The district narrowly voted for Obama in 2008.

Signs were posted around the borough to alert voters about the change in polling places, and some residents received flyers, poll workers said. The borough secretary was at Borough Hall to redirect residents, but Johnson said she only heard of one woman who went there first.

"Are we eating here, or voting?" an elderly man asked as he and his wife arrived at dinner time.

"Good," he said when he was told he could do both.

Katie Fazekas, 27, was confused by the aroma of pork simmering in gravy and beef stew.

She had just gotten into town from White Hall, Pa., a 40-minute drive, to vote, and her mother had told her of the relocated polls.

After voting, she was headed to her parents' house for dinner before heading home.

Fazekas said she voted for President Obama, as she did four years ago, because of his health-care policy. She works as a medical receptionist at a hospital in Allentown.

The Riegelsville native was in and out of the firehouse within minutes, but many voters lingered over dinner.

"The firehouse is warmer and more comfortable than Borough Hall," Johnson said. "There's plenty of parking, and it's more accessible."

Mayor Stokes said he was looking into making the relocation permanent, but first needs the fire company's permission.

Stokes and the poll workers praised the hospitality of the fire company and its auxiliary for Election Day and throughout the power outage.

"They were feeding at least 500 people every day, and just asking for donations," Johnson said. "They served donated food. They even had fresh flowers on the table and used real china plates."

The power outage and the relocated polls "put the fire company in the center of the community," Ryan added. "That's how it should be."

- Bill Reed

No wait to vote in West Chester

Jackie Palm, 30, was in financial sales but her "company shut down," so she is unemployed.

At the polling place at West Chester Borough Hall, Palm said she voted for Mitt Romney because "his economic plans are more in line with where I want the country to go."

A few minutes after Palm voted, in the hour after 6 p.m., Alex Alonso, also 30, said he had voted for President Obama because "he deserves four more years because with what he came into, I feel four years isn't enough for him."

Alonso, who works for a mutual fund company, said "if he's going to be judged as the first black president, he needs eight years."

There was virtually no waiting to vote, about the same as in 2008, said judge of elections Robert Haniwalt, a carpenter. The voters, he said where "a lot of students" at West Chester University and "a lot of renters."

At the Side Bar restaurant on Gay near High Street at the heart of town, Joe Acchione, 26, a video producer for the West Chester firm Tribe Sound, said he voted for the president.

"Out of the two mainstream candidates" he said, "he's the only one who had acknowledged the existence of global warming."

- Walter F. Naedele

7:55 p.m.

A nurse races to ensure votes will count

Jessica Groatman, the nurse at Abington Memorial Hospital, was still working hard at 6:45 p.m., determined to get all the emergency absentee ballots signed and back to the judge in Norristown before the polls closed at 8.

"It's taking a lot longer than I thought," she said. "We kept having more patients."

Groatman, 35, was using her day off to help hospitalized patients complete emergency absentee ballots, a cumbersome process that required getting each patient to complete a notarized applications, a trip to Norristown to get the actual ballot, a trip back to Abington to get the ballots completed, and then one last trip to Norristown by the 8 p.m. deadline.

Groatman has a class tonight at Abington, toward her masters in nursing, but her professor threw her out - with the strongest blessing - and told her to finish with the ballots!

As for the 16 patients who got to vote: "They were thrilled," said Groatman.

A little before 8, Groatman sent a text after turning in her 16 ballots in Norristown: "I made it in time :)"

- Michael Vitez

Girard Estates: 'A lot in the balance'

As he arrived to vote at the Donatucci Library in Girard Estates Tuesday afternoon, Fred Defelice was still making up his mind about whether to vote for Mitt Romney or President Obama.

"There is a lot in the balance, the economy, Obamacare. I'm really torn right now," said Defelice, a retired city employee. He generally votes for Democrats but is concerned about what he's heard about Obama's plans to cut Medicare spending.

"I'm going to decide when I get in there," Defelice said.

Paula Terrerri, 57, arrived at the Donatucci Library just after 6 a.m. She spent most of the day handing out sample Republican ballots and for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. She stood for hours near the library doors Tuesday but said she wasn't tired. "If it took 24 hours, I'd be here," she said. She described herself as a devout Catholic who was especially angered that Obama was "forcing my church to pay for birth control."

Claire Jones, an election judge at the Donatucci Library, said people were lined up well before polls opened at 7 a.m. to vote. "That's really unusual," Jones said. Turnout, she said, was heavy, with 220 of her division's 521 registered voters casting ballots by mid-afternoon. "It hasn't been like this since the first time Rizzo ran for mayor," she said. That was in 1971.

- Miriam Hill

7:40 p.m.

'An awful lot of new voters' in Media

At the Delaware County Bar Association in Media on Tuesday evening, poll worker Bill Kreider said turnout for the day was heavy.

"It's been high," he said.

Of some 1,258 registered voters for that area, by around 6:30 p.m., about 760 had voted and there were about 50 absentee ballots, he said.

"We had an awful lot of people we had to ask for IDs" as first time voters, he said. "It seemed like an awful lot of new voters."

- Rita Giordano

In Moorestown, support for both sides

Voters at the polls in Republican-leaning Moorestown were eager to say what motivated them to participate in what could be an exceedingly close presidential election. Elizabeth Brigante, 63, a retired attorney, said she is aggravated at the right wing and is supporting President Obama. "If I could vote twice, I would," she said. She became angry early on, when Mitch McConnell "came onto the floor of Congress" and said he would do everything he could to defeat Obama soon after he was elected. "How can they do this to the country?' she asked. Brigante also said she was upset about Mitt Romney's remarks about his "binders of women" and his position on Roe v. Wade.

Monica Shapiro, 68, a semi-retired accountant, said she is voting for Romney due to the "unemployment situation. . . I don't like the way things are going in the country right now." She called the debates "a bunch of hoopla" and said that she prefers to look at the issues themselves. "I also don't like the sound of Obamacare. It doesn't sound like it will be that good and it may raise taxes," she said.

Claudia Fletcher, a sales recruiter, was more ambivalent. "I'm not happy with a number of things I see and am not sure the other choice [Romney] will be the answer," she said. "But I am willing to give it a shot."

But Michael Weintraub, 58, a math teacher and business professor at Temple University, says people should give Obama a chance to finish turning things around. "I looked at this from a business standpoint and predicted it would take 8-10 years to turn things around after the hole we were in. I am amazed at how much he's done in four years. People were talking about a near Depression back then," he said.

Weintraub said he also has noticed the increase in economic growth every quarter and the number of his students who graduate with jobs. "Things are better than they were four years ago and at least Obama is a guy I can trust," he said.

Rachel Doyle, 27, a job coach who works with autistic children, echoed the sentiment. "Obama is the people's person. He's for the people. Obama is at least trying. He started with a terrible economy and there's some trial and error."

7:25 p.m.

Cheltenham: 'This community shows up'

About 90 percent of the Cheltenham Township voters eligible to cast ballots at the Elkins Park Middle School usually do so - a figure well above national norms.

Officials said they expected the same high turnout Tuesday.

"This community shows up," said Mitch Zygmund-Felt, a constable at the polling site. At midday, 49 percent of roughly 970 eligible voters had voted, and a slow but steady stream of voters were heading through the doors.

Zygmund-Felt moved to the area in 1979, when Cheltenham was a GOP stronghold, probably two-thirds of the electorate declared as Republicans. Over time that trend has reversed, making the area Democratic Party country today.

The constable said he expected Obama to be narrowly reelected popularly, and by a more comfortable margin in the Electoral College. But he hoped that whoever is elected would find ways to work with members of both parties in Congress and move the country forward.

Across town at Cheltenham High School, which usually sees sluggish turnout, officials said 51 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots by late afternoon. A line of 10 to 12 people was forming as more people finished their workday and came in to vote.

- Jeff Gammage

7:15 p.m.

A Delco man's determined effort to vote

Danny Canakis, 70, of Springfield, suffers from heart failure, and was hospitalized at the University of Pennsylvania on Friday. He was determined to get out of the hospital by today so he could vote. But he couldn't.

So he called his daughter, Diane Dinoulis, who threw all her plans for the day aside, and went through the rigorous process of getting her father an emergency absentee ballot. This invovled her going to the hospital to get him to sign a form and have it notarized. Then she had to drive back to Media to get a judge to approve the request for an emergency absentee ballot, and then drive the ballot back to her father in the hospital. Then return the completed ballot back to Media.

"I had to do this, to vote," he said yesterday from his hospital bed. "People died for me. We're Americans and it is our right.

"I was truly worried."

Canakis, 70, who for 26 years was chef and owner at the Robinson Diner in Southwest Philadelphia, has been sick since the 1990s and credits his physician, Susan Brozena, with keeping him alive.

"I feel it's an honor to be able to help a man who feels so passionate about his right to vote and his voice," said his daughter. "I rearranged my whole day just to be able to tend to what my dad needed."

Third-year medical students at HUP were working all day to help other patients vote with emergency absentee ballots, and more than 65 were able to vote, according to Courtney Penn, one of the medical students.

- Michael Vitez

7 p.m.

A tough choice in Moorestown

While standing in line to vote at the Moorestown Library, Anthony Pennisi wrestled with his choice for president. Pennisi, 53, a registered Republican who owns a hardwood flooring company, is one of the undecided voters who will play a big role in the outcome. Before going inside, Pennisi explained that he was concerned Mitt Romney might appoint Supreme Court justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade. "You can't take away women's rights," he said. He also worried about Romney's changing positions and whether he would honor the promises he has made.

President Obama, on the other hand, "is mid-course right now," Pennisi said, and might do well if granted another term. Since Obama won't be able to run for a third term, he may be better situated to get things done, "even if they're unpleasant and unpopular."

But Pennisi still wasn't sure. He worried that Obama's health-care plan will meddle in the affairs of small businesses like his. He doesn't like government telling him what insurance he must provide to his employees. And the health-care plan is "dangerously close" to socialism.

After waiting in line about 20 minutes, Pennisi finally decided. He went with Romney. "I'm not happy with everything that's going on, as we come out of recession. . . It's a constant struggle and until that train actually gets rolling and people start spending, we won't recover," he explained.

Still, he says he feels ambivalent. "Perhaps" Romney was the right choice, he offers. "How can one be confident" that a candidate will do as he promises? he asked.

- Jan Hefler

6:30 p.m.

'A great turnout' in Queen Village

In the Queen Village section of Philadelphia, where President Obama signs on homes far outnumbered those for Mitt Romney, turnout was robust for both parties, said one veteran poll worker.

"It has been very heavy voting, a great turnout. People are very excited, very passionate," said Jane Fitzgerald, working the polling place at a Catholic church.

Fitzgerald said she seeing the polling place's regulars but also quite a few people who don't usually vote.

Candy Lerner, 61, went to the polling spot to vote for President Obama as she did in the last presidential election.

"I think he's our best chance for moving this country forward. He didn't have enough time in the first four-year term. He needs another four years," said the executive assistant and registered Democrat.

She doesn't like Romney. "I think it would take us back to the Bush years, and that's too scary to think about."

Dana Tenuto, 32, who works in medical sales and is a registered Republican, voted for Romney. Last time, she voted for John McCain.

"He seems to have a more positive outlook on the economy," she said of Romney. She thought "Obamacare" would raise taxes too much. "I think our tax dollars already pay enough for things like welfare and now Obamacare," she said.

Outside a polling place in Darby Borough, Delaware County, Anwar Garvin, 20, a college student who lives in Lansdowne, said he voted for the first time Tuesday, and he chose Obama.

"I think that he's progressive and receptive to new ideas. That's what we need," he said.

Michelle Cain, 44, of Darby Borough, a nurse's aide, voted for Obama. She said she has patients who got medical care under his health-care program who would not have before. A registered Democrat, she voted for him last time.

- Rita Giordano

6:15 p.m.

Montco sees fewer problems than expected

Surveying a polling place at Whitpain Township's administrative building, Montgomery County commissioners said they'd expected many more problems at the polls than they'd seen so far Tuesday.

Commissioners Leslie Richards and Bruce L. Castor Jr. and Board Chairman Joshua Shapiro said polling had been running smoothly and the county is on track for about a 60 percent turnout, which is in line with 2008's voter turnout.

"We haven't received any reports of any issues with machines," Richards said, who chairs the county's board of elections. She said the board was encouraged by long lines at county polling places.

Richards said the county has worked hard to train poll workers this year, hosting 17 training sessions (typically, the county holds seven per year). Castor said turnout was three or four times what the county would see in an "off year." The county also has a legal staff responding to any issues reported at the polls and hasn't dealt with any major issues yet, Richards said.

In midafternoon, Castor said: "We're feeling pretty comfortable about the efficiency of this election."

- Aubrey Whelan

5:50 p.m.

Hatboro's mayor thanks late-day voters

With the sun fading fast over the Crooked Billet Elementary School in Hatboro, Norm Hawkes worked the stream of late-day voters heading into the gymnasium to vote.

"I'm Norm. I'm the mayor. Thanks for coming out to vote."

From 7 this morning, the 72-year-old Hawkes has greeted his constituents, moving among the Montgomery County borough's four polling stations. He wore a white shirt and tie underneath his faded green military jacket from his days with the 101st Airborne Division. The retired high school gym teacher was a paratrooper stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. "I'm a Cold War veteran," he said.

Hawkes, a Democrat who was elected in 2004 - "The first Democrat in the borough ... I think" - takes enormous pride in an unbroken voting record. Primaries or presidential election, doesn't matter. He votes. "I'm one of those," he joked. And it bugs him when other people don't bother to vote. "I get upset."

This presidential election, the mayor is thrilled by the turnout. "It's the biggest I've seen in a long, long time," he said by the front entrance of the school. "It's good to see."

What's his explanation for it? "The election's been going on for two years!" Hawkes said. "You can't get away from it. You turn on TV and there it is!" He thinks that social media, too, has helped to get people off the sofa and out the door.

He wore an Obama campaign button on his jacket, but insisted that right now, it's not about politics but really about thanking people for being there. Inside, more than 75 people wait to vote. So far, 1,000 have voted from 2,000 registered voters.

And Mayor Hawkes wanted to thank each and every one of them.

"I'm Norm. I'm the mayor. Thanks for voting," he says again and again and again.

- Jennifer Lin

5:30 p.m.

Long lines, complaints in Maple Shade, Moorestown

Many voters in Maple Shade and Moorestown seem to be voting without problems but long lines. Several voters commented that they were unsatisfied with the "direction" the country is headed in.

Erica Anderson, 28, of Maple Shade, said she paid more attention to political TV advertisements, which she said "had a lot more mudslinging in this election than the last." Anderson said she was concerned with candidates' positions on women's issues.

Maple Shade resident Chris Bedel, 51, said she voted differently from the way she did in the last presidential election. Bedel said after her husband was laid off due to budget cuts, she paid more attention to economic issues.

Kelly Jordan, 54, of Maple Shade, said issues of family values and jobs influenced her vote. Jordan said, the lack of progress in the country was the biggest difference she noticed since the last election. "I think we're going backward."

Alan Sheasley, a Moorestown voter, said he was voting on the general state of the nation internationally and economically. "I think we're definitely headed in the wrong direction," Sheasley said.

- Erin Quinn

5:15 p.m.

Elections judge keeps busy in Chinatown

At the Chinese Christian Church on 10th Street in Philadelphia, the elections judge had fielded a steady stream of voters from three divisions in the 5th Ward.

By midafternoon, nearly 700 people had voted. Voters were asked for their ID but clerks were quick to note: "You don't have to have it, we just need your name."

Outside, volunteers with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund conducted exit polls and assisted people who appeared confused or who were not able to vote. Shirley Lin, a staff attorney with AALDEF, said the biggest problems were language barriers and voters who weren't on the rolls.

Even though the site had English-language interpreters available, Lin said many people came and went without ever realizing the translators were there. Others told her they were instructed to go to a different location, but not given assistance to find their polling place, she said.

After calling the Philadelphia Election Commission, Lin said she was told "ultimately not to rely on the online database" because some polling-place changes were not reflected on the site.

- Jessica Parks

5 p.m.

Emotions high in 'Lawyer Merion'

"Welcome to Lawyer Merion," teased Brian Gordon, part of a squadron of poll watcher/attorneys on duty at the Bala Gymnasium in Lower Merion Township, where turnout was high, and so were emotions. The lawyers, all registered Democrats, jousted most of the morning with the poll's assigned judge of elections, Bill Ash, a registered Republican.

Among the bones of contention: allegations by the Democrats that Ash had turned away a handful of voters whose names were not on the rolls in the Bala precinct, but who should have been given provisional ballots because they are registered elsewhere in Montgomery County.

The provisional ballot is "like a placeholder" whose legitimacy can be sorted out later, said Gordon, an Obama supporter, who also is a Lower Merion Township Commissioner.

Ash, for his part, maintained that Gordon and the other lawyers flatly misread the law.

"We already have laws," he said to Gordon. "Look them up before you come in here and point fingers."

A uniformed patrolman with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office was at the poll and placed a telephone call to Montgomery County director of voter services Joseph Passarella in Norristown, the county seat. The officer passed on word to Ash and Gordon that Passarella had apparently supported Ash's interpretation.

Joseph Foster, a Temple University professor of history, is vice chairman of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County. As tempers simmered, he was called to the Bala precinct poll. By the time he arrived it appeared that the issue was resolved.

"People are so keyed up for this election," said Foster. "The partisanship is running so high. People are on edge. Happily, most of the issues are being settled amicably." - Michael Matza

4:50 p.m.

In 'devastated' Ventnor, a sense of purpose

In hard-hit Ventnor, six polling districts were combined into one site, the Ventnor Community Center, which just two days before was a Hurricane Relief Center. Police were stationed out front on Atlantic and Newport Avenues, because the traffic light in front of the center was still not working because of hurricane damage.

With districts that normally vote at the VFW center on North Dorset Avenue and at the recreation building near the ball fields - both in heavily flooded-out Ventnor Heights - voting at the Community Center, the polling place was much busier than usual.

But within individual districts as well, turnout was much higher than usual, as much as three times higher, according to some poll workers, partly because of the presidential election, but maybe also because of Sandy.

"People are devastated," said Patricia Stewart, 80, a veteran poll worker who herself was evacuated at the height of the storm and spent a night on a cot in the gymnasium of Buena Regional High School, a Red Cross shelter. "They're more likely to vote. Everybody wants help, and they want to be sure everybody knows they need help."

Because so many districts were combined in one, there was an air of battered reunion about the polling place, as well as a heightened sense of purpose. People were heard exchanging stories of damaged homes and visits from FEMA much more often than any discussion about who they might vote for.

"You can't believe how many haven't seen each other," said Joseph Marrone, 69, another poll worker. "They were hugging each other."

Marrone said there were people coming in to vote despite having no heat in their homes, and a backbreaking and discouraging burden of worry and rebuilding setting in. Some people arriving to vote were casino workers who have been told not to report to work by the nearly empty casinos, placing unemployment on their list of worries, next to ruined homes.

"We had people in here still without heat," Marrone said. "They're freezing. But you're dealing with mature people here. They take voting seriously."

Marone said he rode out the storm alone in a house on Atlantic Avenue - but would never do that again. "I'm selfish and self-centered," he said. "I thought it was going to be easy, like Irene was easy. It wasn't."

- Amy S. Rosenberg

4:40 p.m.

Strong, steady turnout in Buckingham Twp.

Turnout was strong and steady at the Forest Grove Presbyterian Church in Buckingham Township, but not as heavy as four years ago, when the district helped elect President Obama, voters and workers said.

"It was rainy and cold four years ago, really nasty," but the parking lot was packed, recalled Louise Boyd, 49, after voting for Obama again.

"There's a lot of things I like about him," said the president of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers. "There's a lot of things that frighten me about the other guy.

"If I could vote twice" for Obama, "I would."

Linda McHenry, 41, of Furlong, was practically giddy after voting for Mitt Romney.

"He's the better candidate all around," she said.

McHenry, who had "worked elections for a lot of years," said she was happy to see young people signing in voters.

Her daughter, Erin, 13, accompanied her, as she has done for years, because "it's cool" to see candidates get elected by the pushing of buttons, Erin said.

She'll also get extra credit from her social studies teacher at Holicong Middle School, Erin said.

Turnout was "amazing" as the polls opened at 7 a.m., with voters packing the small parking lot and waiting to enter the church, said Democratic committeewoman Rhonda Stowe. It slowed down around midday, but picked up after schools let out, and was about to get busy as voters got off work, she said.

- Bill Reed

4:20 p.m.

Large turnout, few snags at Devon Manor

At Devon Manor, a retirement community on Lancaster Avenue near the Devon Horse Show, voter turnout by early afternoon was larger than in 2008, judge of elections Andy Smith said.

"We've had a long line all this morning," said Smith, who had the same duty four years ago. "I don't remember as long a line as this, all morning."

Smith, an ethics teacher at Penn State's Great Valley campus, said there were few problems - "people who forgot to register or thought they had registered" to vote.

Yolanda Fazzini, 84, of Berwyn, a retired insurance agent, said she defied her Democratic registration and voted for Mitt Romney. "Pro-life reasons are my main thing," said Fazzini, a Roman Catholic, who voted against President Obama in 2008, too.

"If you don't care about life," she said, "you don't know what life is all about."

Jennifer Raffatto of Devon, who works in a physician's office, voted for Obama. "I feel like he's doing a good job, and hasn't had enough time to complete his plan."

Though she voted on her lunch hour to avoid the long after-work lines of 2008, Raffatto said she still waited about 25 minutes to vote.

- Walter F. Naedele

4:00 p.m.

Lawnside's vote lower than 2008

At Lawnside's municipal building -- one of two polling places in the historically black and predominantly Democratic Camden County borough -- turnout had been "great" all day long, according to election official Joan Smith.

"It was bigger in '08, but this has been steady," she said, as a half dozen voters waited in the vestibule. More than 550 votes had been cast as of 3 p.m.. Smith said.

Among those voting were Arthur and Augustine Sawyer, a retired couple whose home displays an Obama sign. "This is an important election, and it doesn't help if you stay home," Mrs. Sawyer said.

Iris Martin, the owner of a beauty supply business, said the president "has done a great job." She added that she is "uncomfortable" with what she called the Republican campaign's "negativity" about women.

- Kevin Riordan

3:40 p.m.

Ardmore voters share walker to vote

Bound and determined to vote, friends Maud Lawrence, Linda Stewart and Shirley Epps trudge to their polling place at St. Mary's Church in Ardmore. Residents of nearby Ardmore House, a HUD-subsidized housing project, the three women were so determined to vote that Maud, a retired Villanova University housekeeper, and Shirley, a retired pre-school administrator, agreed to share Shirley's walker in order to make it up the hill.

Also at St. Mary's partisan poll watchers keep running tallies of who has voted using colored markers to draw lines through so-called "strike" lists. Democrats keep track of registered Democrats. Republicans do the same for registered Republicans. The lists are collated at respective party headquarters every three to four hours, and hourly or so as the day wears on. That way party activists can target and call people who have not yet voted and get their voters to the polls before they close at 8 p.m. Lower Merion Township commissioner Steven Lindner, a poll watcher for the Democrats at St. Mary's Church in Ardmore, hands off the 2 p.m. list to his Democratic activist colleague Henry Spady.

- Michael Matza

3:30 p.m.

In Bucks, crunch time is 5 to 8 p.m.

At the Southampton Fire House at 925 Street Road in Lower Bucks County, Katherine U'Selis is a veteran poll worker. The election judge oversees the South-1 voting district in the township, which has about 1,800 voters. By 2 p.m., 736 of them had voted. "It's crazy," she said. "We're realy, really busy."

And it wasn't even crunch time yet -- that occurs from about 5 until 8 p.m.

For people still in line at 8 p.m., the poll officials will place a constable at the end of the line and allow anyone in front of him to vote. Those who show up behind the constable, won't be allowed to vote.

In townships like Southampton that border the city of Philadelphia, it's not unusual to run into registration problems, poll officials said. People who move from the city don't always show up on the Bucks County election rolls. Sometimes, there's a lag time or people have not gone through the process of registering in Bucks, said Frank Dzara, an election judge for Southampton's east district 1.

In cases like that, voters have to return to the districts where they are registered, which could be back in Philadelphia. Dzara said about four people today had to return to Philadelphia to vote. "They have to go back to the same place they voted before," he said. "There's not much I can do beyond that."

Like the overwhelming number of voters today, Al, 51, and Jill, 47, Spotts, of Upper Southampton had the economy on their minds. Jill, who works in event planning, is currently out of work. Al does marketing for an energy company.

Both voted for Obama -- repeating how they voted in 2008.

Of the economy, Jill said, "It's a big deal. I don't want to take a chance...I'm nervous about looking for work."

But she conceded that she felt a vote for Obama was choosing "the lesser of two evils. I don't really love any of them." She characterized her vote as "anyone besides Romney." The politician she really likes these days is not running: "I'd vote for Chris Christie right now!"

Al Spotts said: "One of the big things is Obama got left with so much stuff on his plate. I want to give him another four years to get things straightened out." He said he voted for Obama in 2008 "because the Republicans screwed up so much."

He added, "If Romney got in, the middle class would have a problem."

Brian Power, 28, a union carpenter from Upper Southampton, also voted for Obama, as he did in 2008. "I don't trust Romney. He's very anti-union. I don't think Obama has done a great job, but four years is not enough to fix what he walked into."

As for the local congressional race, Brian said he didn't know much about the two candidates and voted along party lines for Boockvar.

Nora Ann Tracey, 34, a homecare nurse and mother of two from Upper Southampton, buckled her 7 week old daughter into the car seat of her SUV after voting for Obama.

Like many women in Bucks County, she had the economy and women's rights as deciding issues. She explained it this way: Before Obama was elected, she had a hard time getting a mortgage. Now she can borrow money. Also: her employer is once again giving raises, evidence for her of a better economy. "Things have improved -- slightly. We have a ways to go but I think things are better."

On women's issues, Tracey said abortion rights, protecting Roe versus Wade and funding for Planned Parenthood were important to her.

3 p.m.

Dialing for Romney in Conshohocken

At Mitt Romney's "victory center" in Conshohocken, volunteers dialed likely Republican voters in an effort to convince stragglers to head to the polls. Some had been going door to door through neighborhoods, encouraging those still at home to vote.

Gayle Kesselman, 66, drove two hours from Carlstadt, N.J. to volunteer. She said she felt she couldn't make much of a difference in heavily blue New Jersey and has been driving to Pennsylvania for the past several weekends. She spent Tuesday morning knocking on doors in and around Conshohocken.

"Today people seemed a little more pro-Obama, to be honest," Kesselman said, laughing. "But it varies from neighborhood to neighborhood. There are some weekends where it seems all Obama and some where it seems all Romney."

In the office, volunteers munched on hoagies and tomato pie and barely looked up from their phones. Cardboard cutouts of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan flanked a large Big Bird cutout in the corner.

Brendan Monroe, 21, a junior at Villanova University and an intern at the Conshohocken office, said the staff is targeting voters who indicated they planned to vote for Romney. The office has been pleased with turnout so far, he said.

"We've rarely heard that people aren't voting," he said. "Obviously we hope people vote Republican but just going out to vote shows the country's headed in the right direction."

Corinne Morgan, 61, a nephrologist who's been volunteering for the campaign since August, said voters have been reporting turnout similar to 2008 levels. She said the office is monitoring reports of difficulty voting but said they hadn't heard anything significant yet.

2:45p.m.

Newtown Sq. voter 'nervous' about times

Newtown Square. By mid afternoon, two-thirds of the 1200 registered voters had cast their votes at the Newtown Square Fire Department on Route 252.

"This is the highest we've had in any election," said Ellen Goss, minority inspector. There were no problems with asking voters for ID, most had it ready to show, she said.

Kristen Paulson, 37, from Newtown Square said in all the times she has voted, this was the election she was "most nervous about." She is registered as and voted Republican.

"I'm not saying Mitt Romney is the answer but things have gotten much worse in my house in the last three years."

She said increasing health care costs as an example. "I'm ready for a change," she said.

2:30 p.m.

Long lines snake around firehouse in Lower Bucks

At the Upper Middletown 3 polling place in Lower Bucks County, voters have been waiting outside the Langhorne-Middletown 22 fire house and on a snake line inside since it opened at 7 a.m., workers said. At 2:15 p.m., the turnout was at 935 of 2,504 voters, and rising steadily.

Republican Committeeman Fred Thomas, 79, has been directing traffic since 6:30 a.m., "and I'll be here till they close, he said. "Early this morning, the cars were backed onto the street.

"Instead of handing out campaign literature," it's better to get people parked, said Thomas, keeping warm and looking dapper in a winter coat, gloves, and tan fedora.

"This is a good district - one of the best," said Thomas, who has manned the polls for 16 years. "It has good poll workers - Republicans and Democrats working together.

"Most people know exactly who they want to vote for," he added.

Walt Haberle, 59, said he voted for Mitt Romney because the former Massachusetts governor "has a much better policy."

"Obama ruined this country, and in four more years, there would be no chance of recovery," Haberle said.

He voted the straight GOP ticket, including U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, who is facing a stiff challenge from Democrat Kathy Boockvar. Republican state Rep. Frank Farry, who is chief of the firehouse, is unopposed.

- Bill Reed

2:15 p.m.

Three generations vote in Cherry Hill

At Cherry Hill West High School, three generations of voters who arrived simultaneously at the polling place said they were casting their ballots for Obama.

"I feel he is more concerned about the rising cost of college, and education," said 20-year-old Brittany Burns, now a student at Camden County College who said she dropped out of DeSales University near Allentown because she could no longer afford the $40,000-a-year cost.

Right behind her, Gary Robinson, 68, of Camden, was driving his 90-year-old mother Mary to the polls to cast ballots for the president.

"Romney is all about cutting Planned Parenthood and not in favor of health care," he said. "Obama is trying to improve the lives of middle-income people. . .I think he's trying to bring all people together, not just the 1 Percent that Romney is trying to promote." He also said Superstorm Sandy was a sign that the next president must focus more on the environment.

Asked if she would be voting Obama, his mother said, "I sure am." Asked if she supported him four years ago, she added: "I sure did.'

But a 28-year-old Cherry Hill man named Adrian said he voted for Romney but didn't want to give his last name because "people of my generation get ostracized" for voting Republican. The young man said both parties were flawed but he didn't trust Obama.

"I'm not pro-big business but this anti-capitalist movement is ridiculous - it's the product of pseudo-intellectual professors impregnating their students with ideas founded in philosophy, not reality," he said. "It's important that business - especially small business - be allowed to thrive."

1:30 p.m.

Donna Blackway, 34, has a job that gives her unique insight into what women are thinking. She's a hair stylist in Doylestown Borough who cuts the hair of about 10 women a day. And the split on the election from her vantage point: 50-50. "I see both sides," Blackway said.

Blackway, a mother of three whose husband works as a retail manager, said economic, environmental and women's issues were big with her. She voted for Obama but said it was a hard choice. "I had a hard time picking," Blackway said. "I feel everyone's pressure. People aren't happy. I talk to people every day. We're struggling and it's a challenge," she said.

But she was worried about Romney's stand on women's issues. "Cool it with overturning Roe versus Wade," she said. "And then they want to get rid of contraception?!"

In the end, she said of Obama, "I really do like his mindset. My mindset is where his is but I don't think he's been able to put it into practice."

Patrick O'Connor, election judge for Doylestown Borough District 2-1, in the historic Doylestown Firehouse, said as of noon, about 360 people had voted from about 1,000 registered voters. He said people were waiting around the block to get in when the polling station opened at 7 a.m. "I've never seen that many," he said.

"It's an important election. There's are major conflicting issues," he said.

Keith Cianfrani, election judge for Doylestown Township District 1 at the township building, said about a third of the district's 1,500 voters had voted by noon. "People are passionate on who they want in."

He said it was hard to get a handle on which way things were leaning. "There is a lot of passion on Democratic side; and there's a lot of passion on the Republican side."

At 6:30 a.m., there was a line outside the township building. With showing photo ID, some voters had it out before they were asked for it; a few refused.

His mother, Lorraine Cianfrani, 84, just moved to Doylestown from Philadelphia. She voted for Romney, explaining that she switched her party allegiance 10 years ago from Democratic to Republican. Of Romney, she said, "I believe he's a diligent man and he'll not stop."

- Jennifer Lin

1:10 p.m.

GOP workers at some Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County polling places were smiling this afternoon, saying that less-than-enthusiastic turnout in heavily Democratic areas locally will help give Mitt Romney a chance to win Pennsylvania.

Four years ago the line at the Elkins Park Library stretched to the street and partway around the block. Today, once the morning rush cleared out, it was individual voters arriving in ones and twos. They were in and out of the voting booth within a couple of minutes.

"I voted to see a change," said Rob Arnold, an Elkins Park resident who said Romney offered more specific plans than Obama to fix the economy.

Republican committeeman Rich Aspenleider said both the turnout and the enthusiasm were down from the last presidential election.

"Not much rah-rah," he said, standing in the cold outside the library. "People were more jubilant then. . . . It's low-key, and that's probably good for a Republican."

Several blocks away, both Democrats and Republicans saw the same trend at the polling place at Myers Elementary School.

"It was a madhouse in 2008," said Mark Sirinides, a GOP candidate for General Assembly, as he greeted voters there today, hoping to swing some votes his way.

Still, he said, given the overwhelming Democratic registration, "I think I'm going to lose." His chance lay with Romney winning Pennsylvania, he said, because "if the top of the ticket wins, I'll get the coattails."

As he spoke, two voters arrived in wheelchairs. A third brought her dog, handing off the leash to a friend so she could step inside the gym and cast her ballot. Across the street from the school, a lone American flag hung from a front porch.

In one important way, said Bryan Casey, who was handing out sample ballots for Democratic candidates at the school, voters here are exactly like the rest of the country: "People seem to have their minds made up."

- Jeff Gammage

1:07 p.m.

In University City in West Philadelphia, college students, Yuppies, retirees and immigrants from around the world were among the dozens of people in line at Paul Robeson High School for Human Services, 4125 Ludlow St., where poll workers said turnout had been heavy since the site opened at 7 a.m.

The neighborhood - where more than a few residents display Obama-Biden posters put up four years ago - is diverse in all but political party affiliation. Alas, one man who spoke little English was disappointed to learn that even though he was recently sworn in as a new American citizen, he could not vote for Obama. Democratic ward leader Carol Jenkins explained to him that he had missed a step: voter registration. "It's too bad," Jenkins said. "He had postponed a trip back to Africa just so he could vote for the first time."

- Marie McCullough

1:05 p.m.

The political spectacle that is Famous Street Deli on Election Day did not disappoint this year, with Rep. Bob Brady capping the lunchtime festivities by showing up with a film crew in tow.

Brady and former City Controller Jonathan Saidel both were wearing body mikes - a fact they let people know before the conversations started. In addition to a cameraman and a sound man, they were trailed by former Daily News Editor Larry Platt, who apparently has a producing role in the effort.

By the time the entourage arrived, the scene in Famous was in full swing. Workers from the powerful electricians' union Local 98 were stationed on the corners at 4th and Bainbridge with Obama signs. Their leader, John Dougherty, arrived shortly before Brady and huddled with his guys before going into the deli.

Inside - and we hope this is a fairly comprehensive list - one could find Council members (Mark Squilla, James F. Kenney, Bobby Henon and Jannie L. Blackwell) state reps (Michael H. O'Brien and William F. Keller) a former mayor (Bill Green) and a former District Attorney (Lynne Abraham).

- Troy Graham

1 p.m.

Turnout in Ship Bottom in Ocean County, the only polling place open on storm-ravaged Long Beach Island, has been heavy and steady all day long.

Some people who have been marooned in their homes since the storm began ventured out for the first time to make their presidential choice on a paper ballot. They were joined by workers from far and wide taking a break from fixing power and gas lines and doing road repairs.

Voters thanked poll workers on their way out the door. Some, who had feared they were not going to be able to exercise their right to vote today, said that if they had to, they would have swum to get here today.

Bags of apples, oranges, cases of water and toiletries were available for storm victims to take home.

Hot coffee was an especially hot commodity for people who had been "camping out" since Sandy hit last week.

- Jacqueline L. Urgo

12:42 p.m.

In Relish a high end southern cooking restaurant in West Oak Lane, Philadelphia more than 100 Democrats gathered for an annual Election Day lunch. State Rep. Dwight Evans greeted "the whole world" to his Election Day party. City Councilman Bill Green, Philadelphia's NAACP President Jerry Mondesire, along with representatives from Enon Tabernacle Church, labor, unions and 100 other Democrats came to wish each other well. Mondesire said the NAACP is non-partisan and "doesn't endorse candidates but we know who to vote for." He described the voter ID law as voter suppression.

In the window's of Relish, campaign posters gave top billing to "Re-elect State Representative Dwight Evans," above "Re-elect Barack Obama."

- Melissa Dribben

12:00 p.m.

The parking lot at the firehouse polling location in the Palmyra Borough center in New Jersey was full and people had to find places along the curb.

A dozen seemingly upbeat voters stopped to give their reasons for coming out and expressed optimism their candidate would win.

Curtis Green, 26, a college professor, said President Obama "needs time to fix what was created." He came with his wife and 3 children, ages 4,8, and 10, and said he also brought the family when history was made four years ago.

Sue O'Kane, who said she lost her job in opthomology 18 months ago, went with Mitt Romney. "I just want a change," she said and smiled. Another Romney supporter, who didn't want to give his name, said he feels "It's a time of crisis and it's our civic duty to vote." He said he is an Independent and did his homework before reaching his decision.

- Jan Hefler

12:30 p.m.

Jessica Groatman, a nurse at Abington Memorial Hospital, feels passionate about the right to vote. She knows that if she were a patient -- stuck in a hospital bed, unable to vote _ she would feel terrible. So she is spending her day off at Abington -- running between hospital and county courthouse _ making sure that at least 16 patients so far get to vote.

Groatman, 35, who works on the medical surgical floor at Abington, has been going room to room, asking hospital patients if they'd like to vote. She has an emergency application form that each patient has to fill out, and then she's getting the patient's doctor to sign it. Then she has to get the patient to sign a form saying the patient would like Groatman to pick up a ballot for the patient. Then Groatman has to sign a form saying she's happy to pick up a ballot.

Then when she's got all the paper work signed -- hopefully by about 1 p.m. today for all 16 patients -- she will drive to Norristown, sit before a judge, and with luck will be given 16 absentee ballots. Then it is back to the hopsital, back to every room to give the patients ballots to fill out. Then she will drive back to Norristown one more time, to drop off the completed ballots at the courthouse, and then it is back to Abington -- where she has a four hour class this evening for a masters degree in nursing education.

Her motivation is simply the Golden Rule.

"If I were a patient and I were unable to vote I would be really devasted," she said. She hatched the idea four years ago. She came in to Abington on her day off four years ago on election day to relieve other nurses, who were working 12 hour shifts, so they could go and vote. That day in the hospital she met "a patient who was completely devasted that he couldn't vote. We found out there was a way to do it. At time I got 11 patients to vote. It was very rewarding."

So today she decided to make helping patients vote her mission. "If I were in the patients situation, I would like someone to do it for me," she said. "Let's just say, I don't tell anybody my political agenda, because I don't believe in that. I'm just trying to support the patients' vote. But if I were in the hospital and couldn't vote, and my candidate had lost, I would have felt like maybe my vote would have made a difference."

Patients, she said, are overwhelmed with gratitude when she explains to them what she's doing.

She has no idea how any of them vote and doesn't care.

- Michael Vitez

12:15 p.m.

In Colwyn Borough, Peace Obilo, 30, said she voted for Obama again. An education major from Temple University, she liked his position on education, health care, women's rights and the leadership he showed during Hurricane Sandy. She said he faced a number of problems when he took office.

"People should be more patient and give him another chance," she said.

Nobel Obilo, 65, a naturalized citizen, was struck by the similarities and differences in the political process of his birth country Nigeria and the U.S. Both counties have two major parties but differ in the campaign process where U.S. candidates spend far more and, on negative ads.

The money "could be used to solve one or two problems in the country," Obilo said. "I think the result of the election would be the same."

For first-time voter Patricia Obilo, 24, the process was smooth although she did ask a few questions about the voting booth to make sure she did things correctly.

The Temple University student, and newly sworn in citizen, voted for Obama.

"He's been doing lots of good for the country in terms of health care and his position on women's health in general," she said.

At the polling location in Colwyn Borough's Fire Department, the turnout has been consistently busy all morning. By 10 a.m., 251 of about 750 voters had cast their ballots.

- Mari Schaefer

12:07 p.m.

East Coventry, Chester County. With more than 570 people voting already, the line snaked outside the Ridge Fire Co. building and into the parking lot. People were waiting about half an hour to vote.

At 10:30 a.m. at least 50 people so far had refused to show their IDs, said Constance Megay, the judge of elections. She fumbled for words as she tried to describe their demeanor. "Very stern," she decided.

Bernadette Brungess, a 69-year-old retired die-cutter, said she thought requiring IDs was "a good idea, really, so you don't have people in here who were here three hours ago." She said she feared they would come in using someone else's name and be able to forge their signature on the voting register.

Mark Cinkowski, 38, a financial services worker, refused to comply. "I told them I wasn't going to show mine," he said. "It's a voter oppression tool."

But when he got to the sign-in table, workers told him that because it was his first time voting in this location, he was required to show identification. He did, but he wondered, "is this legal?"

When Cody Schott, 19, stepped to the sign-in table, the poll worker called out "first time voter!" and the other workers _ including a woman in a sequined red, white and blue cap _ clapped and cheered.

Schott said the applause was "kind of weird," but he smiled anyway as he stepped up to the line of voting booths.

- Sandy Bauers

11:30 a.m.

At the Swedeland Fire Co., in Upper Merion Township, turnout was "big, really big," according to Republican committeeman Gene Lonchar. Lonchar said that by 11:30, 140 voters - better than a quarter of the precinct's registered voters -had shown up. That compares with the daylong total of 96 who voted in the May primary.

"It's been busy," Lonchar said. "We had 20 people waiting outside the door at 7 O'clock.

Lonchar said that so far voter ID had been no issue, and that no provisional ballots had been distributed.

- Anthony R. Wood

11:49 a.m.

Retired union leader Anthony Ottubre, 68, was asked to show ID when he voted at a catering hall at 9th and Bigler.

He declined to show it.

"They know me," he said of the poll workers. "They're my neighbors."

Ottubre strongly opposes any attempts to compel voters to show identification.

"It's voter suppression," Ottubre said. "We can't go backwards."

Ottubre voted for Obama, who he said has been hamstrung by a Republican House. He said he was deeply suspicious of Romney's tax plan.

"He can't fund that plan," Ottubre said.

- Kristen A. Graham

11:28 a.m.

As of 11 a.m., at the Weccacoe Recreation Center in Queen Village, 331 of about 800 registered voters had cast their ballots -- a "phenomenal" percentage, one poll worker said -- "and we've got until 8 p.m."

- Virginia Delavan

11:00 a.m.

At St George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, aat 8th and Spruce - ward 5 division 5, by 10:45 am almost 300 people had voted, a high turnout considering only about 900 on the voting rolls.

Only problem according to poll watchers is they didn't get a Mandarin translator as requested. There's a decent number of elderly Chinese in the area but they're muddling through, as usually one person in the group will speak some English.

- James Osborne

10:55 a.m.

At the Lutheran Theological Seminary in West Mount Airy, voter turnout was similar to the presidential election of 2008, said Robert Lambert, judge of elections for the Ninth Ward, 12th Division, where 90 percent of residents are registered Democrats.

"We had ten people in line at 6:45 a.m." before the polls opened at 7 a.m., Lambert said. "The line was out the door and down the hallway for about an hour and a half."

By 9:30 a.m., about 215 of the division's 812 registered voters had cast an in-person ballot. Twenty-eight residents had voted by absentee ballot, a division record, Lambert said.

Outside the voting booth, Robin Robinowitz held up her cell-phone camera and snapped a picture of son Jared Dobkin, 18, as he entered the booth to vote for the first time.

"I'm so proud," said Robinowitz, 57. "I wanted to document the event on Facebook and keep the pictures forever.

Mother and son cast their vote for the same presidential candidate but for different reasons.

"I voted for Barack Obama - but not happily," said Dobkin, a senior at Central High School. "He's going to extend the cycle of party politics that will drive us away from the political centrism that we need to move forward. . ..But he's the closest to what I wanted."

Robinowitiz voted for the president with more enthusiasm and said she believes his policies will turn around the economy.

"I thought (Obama) got a raw deal," said Robinowitz, 57, a writer for Philadelphia Futures, a nonprofit group that aids economically-disadvantaged, college-bound students. "He inherited a problem and has tried to fix it the best way he can, and I believe Romney is full of lies."

10:50 a.m.

At the Pine Run Community Center on Ferry Road in Doylestown Township, voter turnout was "vigorous," said Martin Getzow, judge of election. Of 1,150 registered voters, 199 had voted in the first 2.5 hours. In 2008, the center, which is located in the Pine Run retirement community center, voter turnout was 82 percent.

Getzow said election workers were following state instructions and asking voters for photos identification. If they had none, they were handed a pamphlet with the headline "Learn what photo IDs you will need for coming elections." Getzow said most people complied with the request to see photo IDs, with a few becoming "argumentative" and one older man crumpling up the pamphlet and throwing it at Getzow. "I thought, 'Seriously dude?' "

- Jennifer Lin

10:45 a.m.

At St. John Chrysostom, a precinct in Delaware County's Wallingford, Nether Providence Township, about 218 of 900 registered voters had cast ballots by 9:45 a.m. The precinct, and the township, have a small majority of Republican registered voters but have a majority of Democrats on the township council. The precinct went for Obama in 2008.

Township Democratic party chairman David Landau, who is also the chairman of the Delaware County Democratic party, said that more voters had turned out by 9:30 today than at the same time in 2008, when by the end of the day about 80 percent of registered voters had voted township-wide.

"There has been very heavy turnout," Landau said. "When the polls opened, there were 30 to 40 people lined up at the door in most precincts and more in some." Even at 9:30, there was a steady stream of voters coming in and a short line at St. John Chrysostom.

Landau said that there were few undecided voters. "People had their minds made up; they knew who they were voting for," he said.

GOP committeeman Greg Thompson agreed. "People are serious about voting and there is a lot of positive energy today," he said. Asked if Republican voters felt their candidate could win, he said: "There is a feeling that Romney can take Pennsylvania."

Paul Kingsley, 85, was one of those voters; he cast a ballot for Romney. "I think that Mr. Obama has ruined this country," he said. "Not one thing he has done is going to benefit my grandchildren and children."

Brandon Moyer, 40, voted for Obama. He voted for the President, he said, "as a matter of inclusiveness - what they can do to help people." The Republicans, he said, focused more on "what people are not allowed to do;" he cited "their regressive stance on women's issues" like abortion and birth control as examples.

Moyer said he was disturbed by all the money spent on the election campaign. "All the money invested to get my vote would have been better spent elsewhere," he said.

Karen Leddy, another voter, agreed. "I'm tired of people calling my home," she said. "I had to erase 12 calls off my voice mail just on Sunday. It's way over the top; I'm glad it's over.

Many, but not all voters, were asked to show ID at the St. John Chrysostom polling place, with new voters in particular asked for some form of identification. Many refused to show ID when asked, said election inspector Eric Behrens, because of their disagreement with the new voter ID law.

- Dan Hardy

10:30 a.m.

At the polling location in the Haverford Township Building voters questioned whether a sign disparaging incumbent Greg Vitale's voting record that was taped to the building was too close to the voting booths. It was taken down and moved behind a chalk line put down to keep party workers 10 feet from the polling entrance.

Voters were casting ballots at a rate of two per minute. By 8:50a.m., 193 voters had come and gone. "We had 20 people lined up at the door when we opened this morning," said Charles Pulver, judge of elections at the 3-1 polling Location in the Haverford Township Building.

Haverford College Professor John Dougherty, 52, said he voted for Obama as he did in 2008.

"I feel like he is best suited," he said. "I'm leery of Romney's ability to provide details."

At the polling location in the Haverford Township Building voters questioned whether a sign disparaging incumbent Greg Vitale's voting record that was taped to the building was too close to the voting booths. It was taken down and moved behind a chalk line put down to keep party workers 10 feet from the polling entrance.

- Mari Schaefer

10:15 a.m.

Hurricane refugee Pauline Campo, her sister and their husbands voted by fax today from Marco Island, Fla., where they had sought refuge after the storm left them in the dark.

Campo, of South Plainfield, say they had faxed their requests to their county clerks - her sister and brother in law live in Hunterdon County, while she lives in Middlesex - on Monday and received their ballots Monday night via fax.

They faxed their ballots back to New Jersey this morning from the real estate office run by Campo's niece, Maria Caruso.

Camp said that by voting this way they knew her choices would be known outside the privacy of the voting booth. "We signed a waiver," she said.

"We felt it important enough to do it this way," she said. "I want to vote in the local elections, too, like the school board."

Campo said she voted for Romney.

"I have more confidence in him," she said. "I don't have the faith and confidence President Obama will do more than he has."

- Joe Gambardello

9:40 a.m.

At one polling place in the South Philadelphia neighborhood of Graduate Hospital, voters were waiting at least a half an hour in long lines to cast their ballots. By 9:15 a.m., one division at Chester Arthur School had exceeded its average vote total of 180 for a general election.

A poll worker was not asking for identification. Although when asked why not she apologized, said she was busy and began telling those in line that the law required her to ask for ID even though showing ID isn't a requirement to vote.

An Obama campaign volunteer stood in front of the polling booths asking for names so he could see who voted from a list provided by the campaign. The list had phone numbers so volunteers could call those who hadn't voted later today and get them to the polling places.

- Matt Katz

When the historic Church of the Advocate opened doors to the public on election day, voters were eager and enthusiastic to get into the polling booths and continue the tradition of social advocacy.

"It has a history in North Philadelphia and in the nation. It's importance is known because the Church fought for change," said Beverly Duncan, one of the first voters in line.

Located on 1801 W. Diamond St, Church of the Advocate is the middle of housing to Philadelphia residents and students from Temple University who are living off-campus.

Duncan, who voted for Obama, said that she had saw a change within the first four years he was in office and the only way to guarantee more changes was to vote. "There's always hope," Duncan said, but only if you vote.

Voters were allowed into the church before polling started at 7 a.m. Traditionally, the Church of the Advocate holds its polling in the main gym, but the heating system for the gym was broken and polling was moved to the basement.

For the 2012 election day, Church of the Advocate is home to five ward divisions and has separated each division by rooms.

The basement hallways of the Church were packed as voters tried to determine which ward they were in and find their way into the tiny polling rooms.

Committee of Seventy member Leslie Tischler and several other volunteers visited the Church throughout the morning to assure that things were running smoothly.

"Our job is to basically make sure that the volunteers are doing okay, that the pollworkers are okay, to see whether or not they are asking for voter id," said Tischler.

Voter ID has not been an issue for voters at the Church of the Advocate, but there has been an issue with determining whether voters are registered.

Douglas Rice moved from the Frankford area to North Philadelphia about a year ago. His new voter registration card lists the Church of the Advocate as his voting site, but he could not be found on registration documents and was forced to complete an absentee ballot.

"They gave me an absentee ballot and I'm supposed to call this number and see if my vote was counted," said Douglas.

According to volunteers from the Obama 2012 campaign, seven voters have been given absentee ballot sheets. These sheets request that the voter call 1-800-VOTESPA to confirm that there vote has in fact been counted after polling sites close tonight.

- Samantha Byles

Viviette Applewhite, the 93-year-old lead plaintiff who sued to block Pennsylvania's voter ID law, was among the first in line to vote this morning in Germantown when the polls opened.

"I'm so happy this is it. Maybe my phone be quiet tomorrow," she said, complaining about the flood of campaign calls.

When she obtained her non-driver license in August, Miss Applewhite, who uses an electric wheelchair, had to travel several miles via two buses to the nearest PennDot center.

But to cast her vote this morning, she only had to take the elevator nine floors down to the polling place in her senior apartment building.

She waited about 10 minutes in line, but voting took only a few seconds.

She voted Democrat, right down the line. "I don't care who the president is, as long as it's a Democrat," she said, although she was wearing an Obama charm bracelet.

After she emerged from the booth, Applewhite was concerned about the woman in line behind her. "They didn't let her vote?"

The woman, Dominique Echevarria, 57, was getting instructions from the poll worker: "You're registered in the 16th division. This is the 15th," he said, before searching out the voting commission's phone number.

Echevarria, a bus attendant with the Philadelphia School District, said she had been down to her previous polling place, at a charter school on Green Street, but found no signs or indication of where to vote. "So I figured it was here, since I live right across the street," she said.

Echevarria said she was voting for Obama because of his strong record on terrorism and because he represents a change from "the same old culture, same old dogma."

"It's like chicken soup compared to Italian wedding soup," she said, explaining that she prefers Italian wedding soup because "it's different, more colorful."

The Germantown House polling station was a new one, and several people had trouble finding it. "Which way is it?" one woman asked at the elevator. "There's no signs outside," another woman complained while waiting in line.

For a few minutes around 7:30 a.m., a poll worker stood outside with a Manila folder that said "VOTE HERE" in permanent marker. But, it being only 36 degrees outside, she soon taped the makeshift sign to a post and went back inside.

The polling station didn't get its shipment of "I voted" stickers either.

- Jessica Parks

At Central Bucks South High School in Warrington, Bucks County, more than 250 were lined up waiting to get inside the gym to vote as the doors opened at 7. Bounding toward the line was Ralph Batman, 62, of Warrington, director of the vocal department at the Curtis Institute.

"I'm so happy there's so many people out voting!" he said, adding that he will be pushing the button for President Obama. "I'm so left of left."

"You got toe warmers and coffee for us in there?" Steve Marzullo, 44, Warrington, who described himself as a "big time" GOPer, asked poll worker outside CB South.

Handouts about voter ID are piled on the registration tables at Central Bucks South High School, where residents of three Warrington voting districts vote. But poll workers were not asking for ID. That had Ralph Batman, 62, managing director of the vocal department at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia feeling cheated.

"Nobody has asked me for my ID yet," he said as he cleared the first sign-im table and stepped up to the second to collect his ticket for entrance to the voting booth.

"Now is as good a time as any," said poll monitor Matthew Hill, who took a look at Batman's driver's license.

That prompted other monitors to ask to see ID.

-Diane Mastrull

Voters began to line up around 6:20 am. at the Radnor Library. By 7:15, the line was beginning to wrap around the outside of the building.

Jane Golas, judge of elections said there are close to 1500 registered voters at the location. In 2008, about 1380 voted. She said about 1100 vote in most elections.

Brendan McGowan, 38, was one of the voters lining up early at the library in Radnor Township. He brought along his three children to watch.

In 2008 the financial planner voted for McCain and he said he was going to vote for Romney.

"I believe it is the right course for the country," he said. He said Romney was the one to reach a compromise and reform the tax code. "Obama is too divisive," he said.

By 8a.m., 170 voters had cast their ballots.

- Mari Schaefer

As many as six dozen people already in line waiting to vote in Chester County Historical Society, on North High Street in West Chester. Actual voting place is in the society's auditorium on the second floor so they have people lined up inside, snaking through the hallways and exhibits.

-Kevin Ferris

In Collingswood, New Jersey turnout was brisk shortly after polls opened at the Zane North School in Collingswood. One poll worker said someone was already there waiting for the doors opened as she arrived. Soon after, there was a mom in running gear, senior citizens, and a young male about 20-years-old.

Esther Folk, 68, of Collingswood, was among the first to cast a vote for president at the school. She voted for President Obama, as she did four years ago.

"He really has tried to do his best," Folk said. "Somebody made a huge mess eight years ago, you can't clean it up right away. It takes more than four years."

Folk said she was wary of all politicians' promises, but confident that the president was the right choice rather than Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Folk said she liked that Obama has admitted to mistakes during his term, and that she still believes she should stick with him.

- Kristen A. Graham

Joe Stevens, 62, was first in line to vote in Haddon Heights, NJ. He walked a block from his home to the municipal building on Station Avenue, before heading to work as a letter carrier in Princeton Township, Mercer County. He declined to say whom he would vote for, but described voting as both a right and the privilege.

Connie DiVincenzo, 63, a clerical worker at Cooper University Hospital, was next in line with her son Brian, 24, a groundsman. She described the presidential election as pivotal; he said people should not complain about the state of the nation "if they don't vote."

A half dozen people were in line when the doors opened. "It's busier than usual," said longtime poll worker Jack Newcomb, 69, a retired construction worker.

Matt Enuco, 28, who teaches physical education at Glassboro High School, said he wanted "to make my voice heard. . .I think every vote does count, and we have the power to change things one person at a time. It's my duty to participate."

- Kevin Riordan

Lines were dozens deep at a polling place at Jefferson Alumni Hall at 10th and Locust in Philadelphia. Wait times were about 35 minutes to vote, causing some people to turn around and walk out.

Registered Republican John Coyle stuck out the long line. He usually votes against the incumbent, Coyle said, but not this time.

"I voted for Obama," said Coyle, 61, who works in finance and lives in Center City. "I think he inherited a very tough situation."

Coyle was not asked to show ID when he voted; his wife, Elaine, was asked, and produced her license.

Steve DeCesare, who brought 3-year-old daughter Lucia along to witness her first presidential ballot being cast, was also in the Obama camp.

In a way, the financial planner noted, a vote for the president was a vote against his personal interests, because his taxes could go up with an Obama victory, but DeCesare said he was thinking big picture.

"His primary message is doing what's right for all as opposed to what's right for just a few," said DeCesare, 36. "That's the right thing."

- Kristen A. Graham

At the Central Bucks Community Senior Center in Doylestown, more than 100 people waited to vote at 8:10 a.m. at the district 6 voting station.

James Milner, 49, of Doylestown Township, an insurance inspector, was first in line at 6:10 a.m. for voting that began at 7 a.m.

"I want to keep things the same," he said, referring to his plans for the day.

Issues most important to Milner were ending the war, the president is on the right track, he wishes Congress could come together, and women's issues. He has three nieces, voted for Obama in 08, and today: "He's done a good job."

Milner said he feels like Obama could've accomplished more if people would work with him more.

Pat Plummer, 62, office assistant for a contractor, resident of Doylestown Township, was planning to vote for Obama: "To stay the course."

Pat showed up at 6:10 and was first in line to vote at District 5.

His issues were: women's issues, economy, security of the nation. Referring to Obama, he added, "He's trying to keep jobs here and open up jobs in the area."

Plummer said she thought the tenor of the election this year was brutal. "Nasty," she said. "It made me want to vote for Obama even more."

Dolores Geraghty, in her 60s, customer-service manager said she has never missed an election. "I take it very seriously," she said.

"With children and grandchildren this is the most important election in my lifetime," Geraghty said. She planned to vote for Mitt Romney. Issues important to her were the economy and her value system: "I'm really concerned about the future of the country."

Over the past five years, Geraghty has changed jobs twice and switched from the print industry to records management, where she's worked for seven months. "I've lost my job and had to get a new one. My son lost his job; so it felt close to home."

-Jennifer Lin

Before 8 a.m. at Memorial Middle School in Willingboro, where in 2008 there had been long lines to cast ballots, there was a steady stream of voters but no waiting. Those who did arrive at the South Jersey polling place were solidly for Obama.

Lenora Burton, a 44-year-old licensed practical nurse, said she cast her ballot for the president. She described it as a vote for "women's health care and equal pay for women. I'm not pro-abortion but I'm pro-choice. Every woman should have the right to choose what to do with her body. And that rape scenario, that scares me. I have a 15-year-old niece."

Prince Wehye, 54, a Liberian native and social worker, said he also voted for Obama because "I believe he has the policies. He has not been given the opportunity to do more. The other side - there's too much flip-flopping."

- Kathy Boccella

Physicians Vicki and Scott Bralow in Center City think President Obama is a good man, but they voted for Romney.

"I voted my pocket and my conscience," said Scott Bralow, 55.

The couple said unemployment is too high and they oppose Obamacare. They voted near their home, where most voters are Democrats.

"I said, 'why are we even bothering?' But it's because we're Americans, and our vote counts," Vicki Bralow said.

"It's a big state," said Scott Bralow.

- Kristen A. Graham

At a polling place on Master Street in Brewerytown, Philadelphia there was a steady flow of people but no lines. 4 machines. No problems to report as of 8:45 am.

Taylor Brown, 25, was a little unsure of what to do when he first entered. "What do I need to show? It's my first time." they checked his ID and took down his signature.

Afterward, he said the process was "very easy." He voted Repulican straight down the ballot, but wasn't thrilled to be supporting Romney. "I don't really believe in either candidate," he said, "but Obama's economic and foreign policies have destroyed the country."

Taylor, who moved to Philadelphia from Orlando three years ago to row on a post-collegiate team, said he was a Ron Paul supporter who was disappointed in the way Paul has been sidelined by the mainstream media.

Taylor supports the voter ID law, arguing that "you have to show ID for everything else." But even that's not enough to stamp out voter fraud, he said. "the electronic machines are easy to tamper with, and there's no paper trail," he said. "Really, we'll never know for sure whether it was rigged or not."

- Jessica Parks

Philadelphia Police Officer Stacey Truity, 43, voted near her home at 12th and Fairmount in Philadelphia.

She is an ardent Obama supporter, Truitt said.

"He is for all, not just the rich," Truitt said of the president. "Romney doesn't represent the 47 percent, and that was a big trigger for me."

Truitt also said that she was uncomfortable with Romney's Mormon faith.

- Kristen A. Graham